Here’s the entire Oscars best-picture disaster, annotated

A mistakenly swapped envelope threw off the carefully guarded announcement process at the Oscars on Feb. 26, leading to the jaw-dropping moment when "La La Land" was announced as the Best Picture winner instead of "Moonlight," the true winner. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Last night’s best-picture award was one for the record books, not because of which film won but because of the debacle that unfolded. After presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong card to read, Dunaway announced “La La Land” as the winner, even though “Moonlight” was the real victor.

WARREN BEATTY: And the Academy Award [looks down at envelope] for best picture . . .

FAYE DUNAWAY: [Off mic:] You’re impossible.

WARREN BEATTY: [Hands envelope to Dunaway]

FAYE DUNAWAY: [Off mic:] Go on. [Takes envelope.] “La La Land.”

JORDAN HOROWITZ: Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you to the academy. Thank you to Lionsgate. Thank you to our incredible cast and crew who are all up here right now. Thank you to Jamie Feldman, to Gary Gilbert. Thank you to my parents for supporting my choice to pursue a career in the arts even though it was a little bit crazy. Arthur Horowitz, you are my fantasy baby. And to my kind, generous, talented, beautiful, blue-eyed wife and creative partner, Julia Hart, you have inspired me to become the man I am right now — and more importantly, the man I’m still becoming. There’s a lot of love in this room, and let’s use it to create and champion bold and diverse work — work that inspires us towards joy, towards hope and towards empathy.

MARC PLATT: Here’s to the fools who made me dream: my uncle Gary Platt, my mentor Sam Cohn, my parents, my children, my wife, Julie, on whose shoulders I’ve stood for 40 years because she insisted I reach for the stars, and to the Hollywood community that I’m so proud to be a part of. And to the Hollywood in the hearts and minds of people everywhere. [Behind Platt, a production-crew member is showing the other two producers the correct winner card.] Repression is the enemy of civilization — so keep dreaming, because the dreams we dream today will provide the love, the compassion and the humanity that will narrate the stories of our lives tomorrow. Fred?

FRED BERGER: [Shakes his head “no,” then goes up to the microphone] To the love of my life, Ally Logan, I’m here because of you. I love you so much. To my family, Mama, Papa, Jeff [unintelligible], you kicked this off, and Damien Chazelle, we’re standing on your shoulders — we lost, by the way. But, you know.

JORDAN HOROWITZ: This is not a joke. “Moonlight” has won best picture. “Moonlight,” best picture. [He holds up the card announcing the winner.]

JIMMY KIMMEL: [Addressing the “La La Land” producers] I think you guys should keep it anyway.

This is very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this. I would like to see you get an Oscar anyway [talking to Horowitz]. Why can’t we just give out a whole bunch of them?

JORDAN HOROWITZ: I’m going to be really proud to hand this to my friends from “Moonlight.”

JIMMY KIMMEL: That’s nice of you. That’s very nice.

WARREN BEATTY: Hello, hello. I want —

JIMMY KIMMEL: Warren, what did you do?!

WARREN BEATTY: I want to tell you what happened. I opened the envelope and it said: Emma Stone, “La La Land.” That’s why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.

JIMMY KIMMEL: Well, you were funny.

WARREN BEATTY: Thank you very much. This is “Moonlight,” the best picture.

ADELE ROMANSKI: Thank you.

BARRY JENKINS: Very clearly, very clearly, even in my dreams, this could not be true. But to hell with dreams, I’m done with it, because this is true. Oh my goodness.

ADELE ROMANSKI: Thank you, thank you.

BARRY JENKINS: And I have to say and it is true, it’s not fake. We’ve been on the road with these guys for so long and that was so gracious, so generous of them. My love to “La La Land,” my love to everybody. Man.

ADELE ROMANSKI: Thank you to the academy. I don’t know what to say. That was really — I’m not sure, I’m still not sure this is real. But thank you to the academy. It is so humbling to be standing up here with hopefully still the “La La” crew. No, okay, they’re gone. But it’s very humbling to be up here. And I think, I hope even more than that, that it’s inspiring to people, little black boys and brown girls and other folks watching at home who feel marginalized and who take some inspiration from seeing this beautiful group of artists helmed by this amazing talent, my friend Barry Jenkins, standing up here on this stage accepting this top honor. Thank you.

BARRY JENKINS: There was a time when I thought this movie was impossible because I couldn’t bring it to fruition, I couldn’t bring myself to tell another story. And so everybody behind me on this stage said, “No, that is not acceptable.” So I just want to thank everybody up here behind me, everybody out there in that room, because we didn’t do this — you guys chose us. Thank you for the choice. I appreciate it. Much love.

JEREMY KLEINER: Good night. Thank you so much.

JIMMY KIMMEL: Well, I don’t know what happened. I blame myself for this. Let’s remember, it’s just an awards show. I mean, we hate to see people disappointed but the good news is, we got to see some extra speeches. We had some great movies. I knew I would screw this show up, I really did. Thank you for watching. I’m back to work tomorrow night at my regular show. I promise I’ll never come back. Good night.

1 of 44

Full Screen

Autoplay

Close

Skip Ad

×

See photos of the Oscars: The winners, presenters and performers of 2017